Masala Chai

The Masala Chai is delicious Indian milk tea made with a blend of spices such as cardamom and ginger. There are many versions of this tea, but this recipe is from my Indian neighbor who became one of my best friends.

I’m a big coffee drinker, and I drink homemade Cold Brew Coffee all day long. But once in a while, especially when it’s cold outside, I crave for a nice cup of Masala Chai.

You might wonder why I’m sharing an Indian tea recipe on my site. Although I mostly share Japanese foods here, I sometimes share non-Japanese recipes when my family or I feel it’s important to be in our family’s just one cookbook.

MY LATEST RECIPES

This Masala Chai recipe was from my Indian neighbor who became my very close friend. When we moved to our house almost 10 years ago, she came by to say hello with her children. Our children had many playdates over the years while she and I sipped a cup of this Masala Chai.

What is Masala Chai?

Chai literally means tea (so don’t say Chai Tea), and the spiced up version is Masala Chai. So what type of spices are in my Masala Chai?

My Go-To Spices for Masala Chai

Green Cardamom: It is the most important part of chai. If you have to pick only one spice, do include this in your chai and don’t skip. I just love the smell of cardamon. I purchase bags of green cardamom pods from a local Indian grocery store for my chai.

Fresh Ginger: I always keep fresh ginger for my Japanese recipes and I love the ginger’s subtle spicy kick in the chai.

Other Spice Choices: Many authentic chai recipes include cinnamon stick, fennel seeds, black peppercorns, and nutmeg. All of the spices add a delicious warmth to the chai as well as some heat from the black pepper and ginger. Everyone probably has their preferred ratio for their spice blend, so feel free to adjust the amounts for each ingredient.

My Indian friend usually crush/grind the spices in a batch and keep extra in an airtight jar. I don’t drink chai every single day, so I usually prepare my green cardamom when I drink it.

With a mortar and pestle, crack the cardamom pods and discard pod. Grind the cardamom into fine powder. If you use ginger, cut into one thin slice.

In a small saucepan, pour the water from the cups.

Add cardamom, sugar, and ginger if you like, and bring it to boil.

When boiling, add tea leaves.

Simmer for 2-3 minutes.

Add milk and bring it to boil again.

When boiling again, reduce heat and keep simmering for another 2 minutes.

Remove from heat and strain tea with a strainer. Serve with a biscuit or cookie.

Recipe Notes

Equipment you will need:

Tea strainer

Recipe by Namiko Chen of Just One Cookbook. All images and content on this site are copyright protected. Please do not use my images without my permission. If you’d like to share this recipe on your site, please re-write the recipe in your own words and link to this post as the original source. Thank you.

Editor’s Note: The post was originally published on January 7, 2011. It’s been updated with the new images.

You may also enjoy these recipes

Disclosure: Just One Cookbook is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.

Hi Kath! I’ve became close to more Indian friends recently and I realized each one of them make tea slightly different when I visit their home. Difference in ingredient portion and preparation steps are little different too. Yes it is addicting!

Hi Jacob! This is one of my very first posts and I even forgot about this post. Haha. Thank you for making the Chai. After I learned this basic Chai from my neighbor friend, I’ve learned other Chai recipes from my other friends and Indian food bloggers. Hope to share them one day… Thanks for including my name & blog on YouTube. 😉

Spot on! As a Westerner who lived in India for a year, coming back to the US and seeing “Chai Tea” everywhere, I am often very frustrated when people get it very wrong. I make it every morning for my family, and love that the recipe here is exactly the way it should be made. Thank you and I love your blog, hope it continues to be successful.

Hi overland_traveler! Aww I’m so happy to hear that you like this recipe and this is how you make chai. This is not a fancy version with lots of spices etc, but this chai was exactly how my Indian friend made for me (and how she taught me). I enjoy a cup of chai so much. I can’t order “chai” in the US because it’s not the same as how she taught me. 🙂

In India there is “chai” and there is “masala chai”. Masala is “sauce”, so essentially the spice or masala is the sauce for the tea. Most chai does not have cardamom, etc., and when one goes to a street vendor one has to ask for masala chai if want the spice in their tea. Otherwise the chai is just tea, milk and sugar. Your friend made it very special, lucky!!